Devil’s Food Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

I needed a little weekend baking project to help take my mind off the Frankenstorm that’s coming our way. Spooky. It’s time for Halloween cupcakesanyway…I make them every year, mostly to use my orange and black sprinkles. I think devil’s food is appropriate for Halloween, and it helps that it’s my favorite species of chocolate cake. I have a particular fondness for oil-based devil’s food like this one from Zoë Bakes. So moist, oh my gosh. And isn’t cream cheese frosting good on just about any cake? Looking forward to eating one of these from the fridge tonight.

-Combine all the dry ingredients together in a large bowl and whisk until combined, set aside.

-Whisk together, eggs, milk, oil and vanilla until well combined. Add the egg mixture to the dry ingredients and whisk until smooth. Slowly add the hot coffee and rum to the batter and whisk until totally blended and smooth, about 2 minutes. The batter will be quite runny.

-Fill a measuring cup or pitcher (you can fill directly from the mixing bowl if you have a steady hand) with the batter and then fill the muffin cups about 2/3 – 3/4 full.

-Bake the cupcakes for about 18-20 minutes or until a tester comes out clean.

-Allow to cool completely on a cake rack, removing the cupcakes from the tin after about 15 minutes, and then frost with cream cheese frosting.

Cream Cheese FrostingfromZoë BakesSteph’s Note: I used the full amount of frosting to decorate 12 cupcakes.

Hi. I think there should definitely be a substitute since it’s a substantial amount of liquid. I haven’t tried this myself, but you could try an equal amount of hot water (maybe with an extra tablespoon of cocoa whisked in just to give it some flavor).